Zoko Enterprises Ltd. imports and markets heavy mechanical equipment, and provides spare parts, project development and services.

The company’s clients include the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD) and the Israeli army, with whom they work closely. The company is responsible for a large part of the Israeli military’s combat vehicles routine maintenance and provides professional training for the Israeli military.

The company’s fully owned subsidiary Tractors and Equipment (I.T.E) Ltd. is the exclusive supplier of Caterpillar heavy machinery for the Israeli military. The company retrofits Caterpillar heavy machinery vehicles for the needs of the Israeli army, including the installation of gunner positions and a bulletproof driver cabin to allow for battle use.

The company has been involved in retrofitting and supplying specially designed manned and unmanned military D9 Bulldozers (Dawn Thunder), and the development of excavators for military use, such as the remote-controlled armored Caterpillar MiniCat MTL-257B. Tractors and Equipment (I.T.E) is similarly involved in a joint project with Ta’as – Israel Military Industries to design an armored military vehicle based on a vehicle of Tatra (Wildcat).

The D9 bulldozers are in Israeli military service as early as the mid-1980s, but over the years their use has expanded greatly. The armored tools are used for house demolitions, uprooting of trees and military urban incursions into the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza.

The D9 was used during the December 2008 and July 2014 attacks on Gaza where over 3,500 people were killed by the Israeli military, and was extensively used for house demolitions in the large-scale Israeli military operation in 2002 in the West Bank.

Other heavy mechanical equipment, truck and armored vehicles by Caterpillar, were supplied by the company and used in the construction of the separation wall and checkpoints and the expansionist settlement enterprise.

During the Israeli attacks on Gaza in 2014, Company employees were deployed in the battle front as part of their maintenance work. As part of an agreement with the company, when the Israeli military declares a state of emergency, the company becomes a military unit whose employees are recruited as a maintenance force and placed in the framework of their reserve service.

For more on Caterpillar’s involvement in the occupation, visit the company’s profile.

Zoko Enterprises Ltd. is also the exclusive representative of the American company, Navistar International. For decades, Navistar trucks have been in use by the Israeli military and include unit trucks, transport trucks, driving training trucks, towing trucks, track sweepers, rescue trucks, and others.

In 2019, Zoko was contracted by the IMOD to supply heavy towing trucks for armored personnel carriers (APC) transportation, bulldozers and various cargo made by Navistar. The contract, which also included the maintenance of the tools and spare parts, was estimated at US$50 million.

In 2017, the Israeli military purchased the 5,900 pull trucks manufactured by Navistar, for the pulling of the Israeli military Merkava tank. Zoko Enterprises retrofitted the pull trucks for the use of the Israeli military and is in charge of their maintenance.